Newb questions for a mid-level SK...

Discussion in 'Tanks' started by Tatanka, Sep 22, 2018.

  1. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Just returned and dusted off an old SK (level 54), which I had just power-leveled myself to get to that point, many years ago. Note, melee and spell skills are reasonable (not maxed, but most of the way there).

    Noticed that fighting mobs takes a LONG time (using a healer merc in Skyfire). Absolutely no danger of dying, but wow, it takes forever to kill the mobs. Just using the Doom snare, pet with haste buff, and the occasional DD spell. Are there other tricks I'm missing? AAs don't really mean much, at 54, there aren't any interesting ones to get yet.

    Gear is pretty much all Intricate Defiant. Weapon is 12/22, so not great, but at 54, not sure what would be much better.

    Tried to parse the fights, so I could report here, but for some reason, GamParse won't report anything. The import runs without error, but no fights show up once it completes. Manually reading the file, looks like just over 2 minutes to kill mobs, and they were high light blue/low dark blue, so around level 47-50.

    Not, this is the first melee/tank I'm playing in EQ, have always played casters, so I'm sure I'm missing something basic. Go easy on me ;)

    Thanks,

    Tat
  2. Draxton New Member

    Use your lifetaps to add some DPS and if you’re are in no danger of dying, spend some mana castings dots.
  3. Brohg Augur

    The zone you're tackling is too high, that's all. That you're tough enough to tank there doesn't mean it's an appropriate spot to solo. Try questing your way up through Blackfeather Roost, that's a great zone to go 50-65 in.

    You should be using a 2h weapon, not 1h. There are no 1h in the Defiant set appropriate for knights, so you're just being like half a dual wield class on that front, instead of like a tank. Even a knight-appropriate 1h (for level 54) (so... Shard of Night? 21/24.) is much less damaging than 2h options.

    And - nukes aren't a "sometimes food". Later on they'll get even easier to use, but getting accustomed early to CHAIN casting is a good thing. Spear of Plague, chain Spirit Taps. See if lifetapping lets you not use a healer mercenary - if you can keep agro with Darkness & Boil Blood dots (and nuking) then using a DPS merc will boost how fast you kill by a lot :)
  4. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Thanks for the tips, I'll try 'em out.

    Brohg, the reason i was in Skyfire was because of the Teek daily. Of course, in the 30 minutes I was there, I never found any of the mobs I was supposed to kill. Typical SoE daily planning :)
  5. S33k3r Augur


    In Gamparse go to Settings -> General and change "Discard if less than" to a much lower value. Gamparse may be discarding the fight as there may not be enough damage.
  6. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    That was it, thanks!
  7. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    OK, so two more questions....

    1 - SKs don't get kick, really? That really surprised me. Checked the class trainer, didn't see it offered.

    2 - melee skillups... I've started using 2 handers, bought skills to 57 at the trainer, for all three 2H types. Tried to go to the training dummies to skill up a while, apparently that doesn't work. Skillups will take forever just fighting, with the slow swing times. Any hints for faster skillups with the 2H weapons?
  8. Tankks New Member

    At level 60 you can /autoskill bash, and never have to worry about kick/bash type abilities.

    Pull lots of low level (but have to be green or light blue con i believe?) to skill up. Ripostes will help level up skills pretty quickly.
  9. Tatanka Joe Schmo

    Ah, ripostes, hadn't thought of that.

    Also, after wasting a lot of time looking into ways to skill up quickly, I finally just gave up and went to my chosen hunting spot. In 35 minutes, 2H slash went from 67 to 129. That's good enough for me.

    Thanks again, all, for the help. I think I'll wind up enjoying this foray into the melee/tank world :)
  10. Flatchy Court Jester

    http://eqshadowknight.net/ Here try this. Years and years of SK advice in these forums. Its amazing the diff I see in opinions sometime on how to play this game.
  11. Dre. Altoholic

    http://www.raidloot.com/Search.aspx...tio&source=Bazaar&class=ShadowKnight&level=54

    What's your haste at? You should have some kind of haste item (probably a belt) and you can buy potions in PoK that stack with it for even more haste (Cat in the corner by the Alchemists in the West trader bldg) I'd also keep some DS pots handy. Skinspikes VI are usually cheap.

    Skyfire sucks. Try Burning Woods, Sebillis or Chardok if you're keeping it old school.

    If it's trivial to stay alive, you might consider a different mercenary, like a caster DPS merc. I wouldn't dream of trying with a Warrior in the 50s, but an SK with Voice/Terror for agro, taps for health, and snare/fear/FD for SHTF might just make that combo viable.
  12. Wulfhere Augur

    A wizard merc on AE Burn is by far the best low to mid-level tanking merc. Exception being on deep red cons due to spell resists.
  13. Dre. Altoholic

    Sounds great to pair with a druid. Not sure how well that strat would work with SK.